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School Evaluation Summary Technology Maturity

Jackson County Public Schools


Jackson County Public Schools is a public school district located in North Carolina. The district lies in an economically depressed rural section of the state. The local economy is built on textiles, farming, and tourists bound for the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Due to the downturn in the textiles economy, 30% of our students have one or more parents out of work. The district is under state mandated transformation due to low test scores and lack of acceptable progress. Many of the teachers come from local community college and university programs, many of which are substandard programs, producing substandard teachers. About 50% of the teaching staff is within 5 years of retirement. Over 65% of district employees commute into the county from surrounding areas. Although there are many disadvanteges in this area there are changes being made to improvle the situation. State mandated online testing, Race to the Top grant, and other initiatives are helping bring more attention and funding to educational technology in the area. A new technology director with a vision for the department and community could bring many improvements to the district. Number of Students Number of faculty/employees Number of Tech. Dept. staff Number of Schools/campuses Socio-Economic Demographics Racial Demographics 1800 300 3 5 92% of students on free and reduced lunch African-American - 80% Hispanic - 5% White - 12% Other - <3% < 30% $32,000/yr

Percentage of students homes with internet connectivity Beginning teacher salary

Administrative

Policy
Behavioral: Emergent Appropriate technology use is considered, however, very little importance is placed on evaluation of technology use. Campus level administrators have very little formal training or experience with appropriate technology integration strategies. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Technology policy and planning is improving. Many years of a lack of commitment to the department of technology are being undone slowly. New policies for Responsible Use, and assessment of integration are in their infancies of creation and approval.

Planning
Behavioral: Islands Planning for technology is a challenge due to under-staffing of the department and frequent equipment/network failures. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Planning is happening, but would increase tremendously from more involvement and collaboration with campus administrators and curriculum departments.

Budget
Behavioral: Emergent Due to budget cuts and a culture of poverty, the importance of technology has been minimalized for many years. There is no plan in place to regularly scheduled upgrades and improvements. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent The Technology dept. budget is very minimal and barely covers operating costs. The goal is to move the budget toward having the ability to sustain more regularly scheduled maintenance and improvement.

Administrative Information
Behavioral: Islands Administrative systems are available and used by many. However, the systems are administered by the state and are old, clunky, and are struggling to keep up with modern browsers and web technologies. Therefore the integration is not happening as it should. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands The state funds and supplies most administrative systems. They are old and falling behind in usefulness, and supplying data to administrators.

Curricular
Electronic Information
Behavioral: Emergent This is due, in large part, to the lack of dependable computer labs and reliable devices on the campuses. Many computers are eight to ten years old.

Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Resources are available through server spaces as well as purchased, online curricula.

Assessment
Behavioral: Islands Our district uses state provided ClassScape testing for benchmark evaluation. However, full integration for assessment and feedback on standards and objectives is rarely used to improve instruction. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Testing and other assessment methods are provided by the state and limited to benchmark, EOC, and EOG testing.

Curriculular Integration
Behavioral: Islands Curriculum is only integrated with technology for online curriculum that is purchased for special purposes and is rarely part of any normal course work. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated State and local resources for online and other digital forms are available, however they are not well advertised to teachers or media coordinators.

Teacher Use
Behavioral: Emergent Evidence of paper gradebooks and a severe lack of the use of email prevent this district from making great strides in education. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated There are many resources for teachers to use in the classroom. From web 2.0, to video cameras, and more. The technology exists, but the habits and desires to use them have not been formed.

Student Use
Behavioral: Emegent Student use of technology is stymied by a lack of classroom discipline and administrator follow through. Until expectations and behavior are improved upon by the administration, students use of technology is widely unorganized and rarely aids in instruction. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent The lack of functioning computers and furniture to house proper integration labs, along with a network that does not allow students to login individually or save any of their own work prevents proper use of technology for instructional purposes.

Support

Stakeholder Involvemnt
Behavioral: Islands Technology planning usually takes place in the office of the technology director. There is a Media & Technology Accountabilty Counsel (MTAC), however, there arent any names on th roster of scheduled meetings. The technology department is also not invited to any principal meetings on a regular basis. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent Planning meetings are not held.

Administrative Support
Behavioral: Islands Administrative support and involvement is limited to informal run-ins or last minute meetings. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands This district is in need of regularly scheduled meetings with key stakeholders from Campus level administrators, Curriculum, Maintenance, & Superintendents. Meetings happen with some of these stakeholders, but not all, and rarely at the same time.

Training
Behavioral: Islands Staff members participate with reluctance. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands With a staff of 3 individuals, this department averages 1 support person per 700 users. Convincing the principals to allow librarians/media coordinators to be a key player in the technology department for each campus would increase follow through and consistency throughout the district.

Technical/Infrastructure Support
Behavioral: Emergent Trust in technical supports has waned in the last year or so due to breakdowns in hardware and infrastructure. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Absence of technical support staff on campuses has resulted in teachers providing peer support for their fellow teachers and mentees.

Connectivity
Local Area Networking (LAN)
Behavioral: Islands Staff and students have access, however, unique logins for user are not supplied. Teachers login as teachers and students login as students. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated All campuses are covered with wireless internet. Wireless internet is more common than wired.

District Area Networking (WAN)


Behavioral: Integrated Teachers use WAN but do not understand the WAN. They have a hard time figuring out how to login when they arrive on another campus. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Network is solid and approved by the state to handle necessary traffic for instructional and assessment purposes. This project is paid for mostly through ERate funds.

Internet Access
Behavioral: Islands Internet is relied upon mainly for testing and rarely for instruction. Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent Internet access is available to all faculty and students. Both wireless and wired environments are provided for all.

Communication Systems
Behavioral: Islands Google Apps for education is used but rarely effectively. Teachers do not check, send, or reply to email often enough to make email a reliable mode of communication. Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent Email is not yet available for students.

Innovation
New Technologies
Behavioral: Emergent New technologies are not rejected by teachers and students, but rather not known. Also, teachers do not have sufficient support to experiment with new technologies. The lack of safety net prevents many from even trying. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands New technologies have been accepted widely, but the lack of implementation from key leaders and stakeholders prevents their widespread adoption.

Comprehensive Technologies
Behavioral: Islands A/V technologies are becoming popular, but a lack of hardware and software to support them is quickly becoming evident. Resource/Infrastructure: Islands More and more types of technolgy are being introduced. The cost-effectiveness of the cloud will facilitate much more growth in this area.

Summary
Jackson County School District has a lot of room for improvement. Many improvements they can make, some must be made by state officials. In order for improvements to be made the technology department desperately needs to put in place more structure and channels for communication. If this can be done effectively, there will be increased buy-in from administrators and other key stakeholders, causing a trickle down effect that start a technology revolution in this impoverished and underprivileged district.

Resources: The full survey can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub? key=0AlzB4jXln_rFdE4ycE9IYkpVN2JwNlROUFZEbjdVMGc &output=html

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